The sequence of steps comprising the double harmonic scale is Or, in relation to the tonic note However, this scale is commonly represented with the first and last half step each being represented with quarter tones:
The non-quarter tone form is identical tothe North Indian Thaat named Bhairav and the South Indian Melakarta named Mayamalavagowla. The double harmonic scale is arrived at by either:
lowering the second note of a harmonic major scale by a semitone.
lowering the second note and raising the third note of the harmonic minor scale by one semitone.
combining the lower half of Phrygian dominant scale with the upper half of harmonic minor.
It is referred to as the "double harmonic" scale because it contains two harmonic tetrads featuring augmented seconds. By contrast, both the harmonic major and harmonic minor scales contain only one augmented second, located between their sixth and seventh degrees. The scale contains a built in Tritone Substitution, a dominant seventh chord a half step above the root, with strong harmonic movement towards the tonic chord. The double harmonic scale is not commonly used in classical music from Western culture, as it does not closely follow any of the basic musical modes, nor is it easily derived from them. It also does not easily fit into common Western chord progressions such as the authentic cadence. This is because it is mostly used as a modal scale, not intended for much movement through chord progressions. The Arabic scale was used in Nikolas Roubanis's "Misirlou", and in the Bacchanale from the opera Samson and Delilah by Saint-Saëns. Claude Debussy used the scale in "Soirée dans Grenade", "La Puerta del Vino", and "Sérénade interrompue" to evoke Spanish flamenco music or Moorish heritage. In popular music, Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Rainbow used the scale in pieces such as "Gates of Babylon" and "Stargazer". The Miles Davis jazz standard "Nardis" also makes use of the double harmonic.. Opeth also used this scale in their song "Bleak" from the album Blackwater Park
Symmetry and balance
The double harmonic scale features radial symmetry, or symmetry around its root, or center note. Breaking up the three note chromaticism and removing this symmetry by sharpening the 2nd or flattening the 7th note respectively by one semitone yields the harmonic major and Phrygian Dominant mode of the harmonic minor scales respectively, each of which, unlike the double harmonic minor scale, has a full diminished chord backbone. This scale is the only seven-note scale that is perfectly balanced; this means that when its pitches are represented as points on a circle, their average position is the centre of the circle.
Modes
Like most heptatonic scales, the double harmonic scale has a mode for each of its individual scale degrees. The most commonly known of these modes is the 4th mode, the Hungarian minor scale, most similar to the harmonic minor scale with a raised 4th degree. The modes are as follows:
Relationship to Phrygian major
The nearest other existing scale to the double harmonic major scale is the Phrygian dominant scale, the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale, as they are alike save for the Phrygian dominant's flattened seventh degree.
